Gurus o’ Gold – A Pre-Toronto Look At The 2010/11 Field

Welcome to the first Gurus gathering of this upcoming season.

It always seems a little silly to offer strong opinions before the Toronto International Film Festival has even begun. So we don’t. Consider these a gentle guide to what the buzz is, very early in the season.

We asked The Gurus to offer their 15 favorites to end up nominated for Best Picture come January. No ranking, No “sure things.” Just instinct and as much insight as is possible at this moment.

Last year, we did the same and the result was that The Gurus hit seven of the final ten in their Top Ten from this long distance. Two more were picked in the Top Sixteen. And the only film to get nominated that was nowhere to be found on this early list? The Blind Side. (Perhaps that explains the shock from the media when it got nominated… even after becoming a well-reviewed massive box office hit.) So maybe this early poll isn’t really all that silly .

Is there a stone unturned this year? Well, not Stone, which got a vote from Pete Howell. And not Tree of Life, which got 4 votes last year at this time… and just 3 votes this time around (2 of them from the same Gurus as last year).

This is not the look for the future of Gurus moving forward. But our team is designing a databased system that will launch when Gurus goes full-out in November. So, until then…

I love (LOVE!) the Gurus of Gold and love seeing who’s picking what, but this just seems waaaaay too early. I know it’s a gentle nudge into the awards ether but jeeeeeez man. There’s movies on here NO ONE HAS SEEN. That aren’t even done or are just barely done. The film fan in me says YAY!…the normal, rational person in me says HUH??

If the early talk of The Way Home is true, I expect it will move up A LOT. Like the trek the characters undertook in WW2, so too has this film taken a very arduous journey. I just hope that Newmarket do not completely screw up the campaign. Peter Weir should have been given the gold many years ago. His work on Witness, Dead Poets and Master and Commander were better than the other nominees in those years (okay, I’ll admit Kurosawa should have won in ’86 for Ran).

The only Coen misfires have been The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty, though I’ll admit to feeling a slight need to see the latter again after all these years since my initial viewing. Beyond those two films, I’d say their weakest efforts (though I’d still give them an ultimately positive rating) are O Brother and Burn After Reading.

I’m all about Tree of Life and True Grit this fall. Of course that’s if Malick releases it this fall. The rumor that it is almost done or in fact done and Malick may hold it until Cannes 2011 is profoundly depressing. Dave have you heard if the movie is complete or near complete?

You know, I don’t want to seem like an old fart. But wasn’t it great when people actually SAW the films before deciding whether they were Best Picture worthy. Back when what the public thought was good instead of a bunch of elitist bloggers predicting the future.

Maybe this is why so many people think the Oscars are irrelevant these days.